CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVROBIO, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVRO) (“AVROBIO” or the “Company”), a Phase 2 clinical-stage gene therapy company, today announced the appointment of Georgette Verdin as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). Ms. Verdin will be responsible for all aspects of human resources, including talent management and organizational development, and will be a key contributor to the Company’s plans for continued growth.

Ms. Verdin joins AVROBIO from the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge MA, where she partnered with executive leaders and their scientific research teams across seven sites in the US, Asia and Europe, in co-creating organizational vision, and developing operations to achieve increased innovation, effectiveness and collaboration across multiple disease portfolios. Previously at Biogen Idec, and other major companies including Amazon and Microsoft, Ms. Verdin is a global human resources leader with broad experience and proven expertise in building cultures that attract, retain and develop world class talent. She joins AVROBIO’s Executive Management Team and reports to Geoff MacKay, AVROBIO’s President and CEO.

“Georgette is a great addition to our leadership team,” said Geoff Mackay. “With her strategic vision and broad HR background she will be instrumental in supporting AVROBIO’s planned growth. With significant progress across our lead Fabry program, our clinical-stage pipeline and our commercial-stage plato platform, our company is poised for rapid expansion and I look forward to working with Georgette to continue to strengthen our company’s leadership position in gene therapy.”

“It is a very exciting time and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to AVROBIO’s evolution and growth,” said Ms. Verdin. “This is groundbreaking science and technology, and I am delighted to be part of building a high-performing and world class team to bring these gene therapies to patients.”

About AVROBIO, Inc.

AVROBIO, Inc. is a leading, Phase 2 gene therapy company focused on the development of its investigational gene therapy, AVR-RD-01, in Fabry disease, as well as additional gene therapy programs in other lysosomal storage disorders including Gaucher disease, cystinosis and Pompe disease. The Company’s plato™ platform includes a proprietary vector system, automated cell manufacturing solution and refined conditioning regimen deploying therapeutic drug monitoring. AVROBIO is headquartered in Cambridge, MA and has offices in Toronto, ON. For additional information, visit www.avrobio.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will,” and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected benefits from the appointment of Ms. Verdin to the position of Chief Human Resources Officer, our business strategy and growth plans, our prospective products and goals, and the anticipated benefits of our gene therapy platform including potential impact on our commercialization activities. Any such statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Results in preclinical or early stage clinical trials may not be indicative of results from later stage or larger scale clinical trials and do not ensure regulatory approval. You should not place undue reliance on these statements, or the scientific data presented.

Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on AVROBIO’s current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry as well as management’s current beliefs and expectations of future events only as of today and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that any one or more of AVROBIO’s product candidates will not be successfully developed or commercialized, the risk of cessation or delay of any ongoing or planned clinical trials of AVROBIO or our collaborators, the risk that AVROBIO may not realize the intended benefits of our gene therapy platform, including the features of our plato platform, the risk that our product candidates or procedures in connection with the administration thereof will not have the safety or efficacy profile that we anticipate, the risk that prior results, such as signals of safety, activity or durability of effect, observed from preclinical or clinical trials, will not be replicated or will not continue in ongoing or future studies or trials involving AVROBIO’s product candidates, the risk that we will be unable to obtain and maintain regulatory approval for our product candidates, the risk that the size and growth potential of the market for our product candidates will not materialize as expected, risks associated with our dependence on third-party suppliers and manufacturers, risks regarding the accuracy of our estimates of expenses and future revenue, risks relating to our capital requirements and needs for additional financing, and risks relating to our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause AVROBIO’s actual results to differ materially and adversely from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in AVROBIO’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties and other important factors in AVROBIO’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AVROBIO explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.